Alien Relic Hunter

"You mean, this 'hive' and Yagunaktor... were built by the same civilization, and that civilization is not the Alpha civilization?" Thirty-three opened his mouth slightly.

Ke Lan did not answer immediately, but fell into thinking.

According to the memories of the "zombie" on the second floor of the Tower of Babel, Yagunaktor was probably built by a group of "escaped earthlings"... Could it be that the people on the engineering ship not only built Yagunaktor , and also built this "hive" on Alpha Planet?

Ke Lan is now even beginning to wonder whether this nest city, the underwater city "City 2" outside, and the uninhabited desert island where the flow of time is obviously abnormal, are on Alpha Planet...

There is another question that remains unexplained - what is the relationship between the group of "escapees" and the Alpha civilization.

Who appeared on this planet first, between them and the Alphas?

Ke Lan knew that it was meaningless to struggle with the paradoxes on the timeline at this time. The timelines of all events were already entangled like a mess. Between the group of "escapees" or the Alpha civilization, at least One of them must have experienced "time travel"... Of course, there is another possibility: that the people who carried out "time travel" were actually the people on the Ark.

The process of traveling through the wormhole seems to be only one year, but in normal time and space, tens of thousands... or even hundreds of millions of years may have passed.

At this moment, Ze Luo, who was possessing Ke Lan, suddenly said: "The language logic of these words is very close to the words of earth civilization. If you give me some time, I should be able to decipher it."

"Close to the language logic of earth civilization?!" Ke Lan was surprised, but then nodded with deep understanding - if this "hive city" and Yagunaktor were both from the escaped engineering ship hand of the crew, then it makes perfect sense that the words "they" use have the shadow of earth civilization.

This can only be said to be "unexpected and reasonable".

"How long will it take to decipher these words?" Ke Lan asked.

During the time that Ze Luo stayed on the Ark, he read so much that even some old scholars with white hair and beards could only dream of it. In order to understand the development of human history and society, especially in terms of language and writing, Zeluo read almost all the documents that Ke Lan and Zofia could get for her, plus her terrifying In terms of understanding and calculation ability, the so-called linguistic experts and writing experts on the Ark can't decipher a "new text" at a speed comparable to that of Ze Luo without the aid of computers.

"In about two hours, I need to compare it with the text library in my memory. This process will consume a lot of time." Ze Luo said, "Of course, if you are lucky, the results will be available in half an hour at the fastest."

"Two hours... OK, then let's explore the industrial area of ​​this 'hive' first. It would be great if we can find some other text information in the process."

For an unknown language, the most difficult part of deciphering it is to figure out its logical pattern and grammar. As long as you can overcome the first difficulty, the rest of the things will become much smoother... By then, translate a sentence The time it takes to translate a ten-word phrase is not much different from that of translating a document of hundreds or thousands of words.

Ke Lan felt vaguely excited... If he could decipher this kind of writing, he might be able to figure out the secret of the group of escapees.

Although humans know very little about the secrets of Alpha civilization, according to the original exploration process, although the progress is very slow, it is proceeding step by step. Some reasonable and unreasonable things can be more or less understood from a logical level. Explanation, even a far-fetched explanation... But ever since Yagunaktor appeared, ever since this "engineering ship escaping from the earth" appeared, everything went into chaos.

Their existence is like a fatal BUG that is extremely conspicuous in a whole line of code. Everyone knows that this is a BUG, ​​even beginners in programming can see it, and this BUG is serious enough to make the entire The program crashed... But in this situation, the program actually started running, and it ran extremely smoothly, as if this bug was an indispensable part of the program.

This is so fucking weird.

"Let's go." Ke Lan took the lead to step off the lifting platform, "To be honest, for this group of...'people' who built Yagunaktor and this 'hive', I am even more interested in them. And above Alpha Civilization.”

In addition, Ke Lan has another question that he wants to understand more. Where did the crew of the engineering ship, or their descendants, go? Were they extinct during the long interstellar journey, or were they killed by the Alpha civilization...or were they integrated into the Alpha civilization?

"I also feel a little confused." Thirty-three followed Ke Lan and said as he walked, "If the people who built Yaguna Kotor and the hive city were the same civilization, then the technological generation difference would be huge. It's bigger than we originally thought... The technological level of this hive city, except for the Nino alloy used on the lifting platform, is similar to that of the earth's civilization, but Yagunaktor's technology is even higher. Even the Alpha civilization cannot reproduce it. If we compare the two together, the word 'gap' cannot describe the gap between the two."

The two of them walked forward along one of the eight main streets. Compared with the chaotic situation on the previous floor, this "industrial area" was much more organized - with the central lifting platform as the base point, eight wide streets More than fifty meters long, the main street with transportation tracks on both sides extends radially in all directions, while other secondary passages are like veins on a leaf, radiating from these eight main streets and connecting them. covering every corner of the entire industrial area.

The further the two of them walked in, the more things they saw and the stronger their doubts became.

Whether it is processing equipment or transportation vehicles, they all reflect the technological level of the aboriginal people of the nest - those freight trains that move through metal rails, tractor locomotives driven by electromagnetic systems, and portable generators driven by chemical fuels ...These things are telling the two of them all the time that the technological level of this hive city is almost the same as that of the earth's civilization from the end of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. In many places, it is even inferior to that of the earth's civilization. Humanity.

At the beginning of the 21st century, CNC equipment has basically spread to every production line in every major industrial country on the planet. However, in the factory in this hive city, many mechanical equipment still need to be controlled by human power. Thirty-three even picked up a handful. A tool similar to a vernier caliper used to adjust accuracy.

"A brilliant and splendid mechanical civilization...but I feel that their technology tree is completely skewed." Thirty-three said to Ke Lan, "We have searched three factories. Have you found any intelligent electronic equipment?"

"No." Ke Lan shook his head.

"This makes no sense... Any civilization will go through such a stage in its development process. Even in the imaginary steampunk world, instruments like the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine were born. How could this civilization not even have a decent machine?" Can’t even build a computer?” Thirty-three expressed his doubts.

It cannot be said that this civilization has experienced an event like the "Omnic Crisis", so it hates this type of technology, right?

"No... I don't think so." Ke Lan shook his head again, "Have you ever thought that maybe your thinking as an earthling on the Ark limits your imagination?"

"Ah? It limits my imagination?" Thirty-three narrowed his eyes, "Are you referring to that kind of fixed-thinking cage? I seem to have heard of this term, but what exactly is it? I really Not quite sure.”

"If this civilization had not developed intelligent devices like computers, how could my blood just activate the lifting platform? I don't think a mechanical device composed of gears and transmission rods could do such a thing, even if it could No matter how sophisticated the structure is, it just can't be done... So I think that behind this mechanical world, there should be something hidden that cannot be seen with our eyes... Not only this hive city, but also the Alpha civilization Those ruins, those core control hubs connected to countless mechanisms, do you think their structure and principles are similar to computers?"

"Hey... when you say that, I really feel a bit..." Thirty-three took a breath, "I have always thought it was a normal thing, but it is the most abnormal... Maybe we have seen too many of those things Things that cannot be explained by the level of science and technology of human civilization, so I think those things are reasonable. Now that you have broken it down in this way, I suddenly feel that the Alpha civilization is not normal. Their technology tree seems to be very large. Leaning towards the field of occultism.”

"The occult science in our eyes may be what they think of as 'science'... It's just that there are many things that humans can't see, so they attribute them to the category of occult science." Ke Lan tapped his temple with his finger, "Suppose The Alpha civilization and the civilization that built this hive city have extremely developed brains, with computing speed and accuracy comparable to electronic computers, so do you think they still need computers?"

"When you say that, I suddenly feel...it doesn't seem to be really needed." Thirty-three suddenly looked at "Ze Luo" who was transformed into a living armor on Ke Lan, "To a certain extent, Ze Luo should also Are you capable of playing the role of a highly intelligent computer?"

"Yes." The answer was Ze Luo, "I have done a test and my ultimate computing speed is four thousand times that of the previous personal computer in Ke Lan's office."

"Four thousand times? Ke Lan, what is the configuration of your machine?" Thirty-three was a little curious.

"The top configuration of a civilian machine, plus some military encryption modules obtained from the black market, but this thing has no bonus to the computing speed, so it can be ignored." Ke Lan said, when he matched this computer with the God of Hunting Group There are already sufficient funds in his account. In order to maximize his hacking skills, he naturally chooses the best accessories available on the market.

"But compared to Ark's core mastermind, my computing speed is far from enough." Ze Luo said again.

"Speaking of which, the core mastermind of Ark seems to be a biological computer, right?" Thirty-three looked at Ke Lan, "I remember you mentioned it before."

"Biological computers are the most perverted..." Ke Lan gestured on his head with the palm of his hand, "Our human brains are only so big, and they can do such complex thinking. Moreover, most of the human brains The cells are still dormant, and only a few of them have been developed... Then you can just imagine: a super brain weighing more than ten tons, and all cells are in an activated state, how much computing power will it have? fear."

"..." Thirty-three nodded silently, then took out an energy bar from his jacket pocket and bit down half of it, "I think my brain cells are almost overloaded when discussing this kind of issue with you... …I really can’t imagine that kind of super biological computer.”

"Have you heard of the A-063 ruins 'Ring City'?" Ke Lan said, changing the topic.

"You know, a coastal city located on the west coast of Zhonghai. The city size is equivalent to four cities of St. Paul on Earth. However, the damage is very serious. More than 90% of the buildings have been completely wiped out. The remaining 10% are farthest from the coast. There is basically only a foundation left in the urban area. According to expert inferences, the 'Ring City' has been hit by at least one hundred tsunamis of more than 100 meters in the past tens of thousands of years. In the face of the power of nature, , no matter how impregnable a city is, it’s hard to have anything left.”

"Then do you know why this city with nothing left can be rated as an A-level relic?" Ke Lan asked.

"I don't know." Thirty-three shook his head, "My understanding of the 'Ring City' is limited to what I just said... I'm not interested in this ruins, so I haven't studied it in depth."

What Thirty-Three just said is an introduction to each ruin on the official website of the Ark Relic Hunter. This information is located under the name, level and location of the ruins. You can see it at a glance without paying, even if you are not registered. Ordinary people with hunter qualifications can also browse this information in visitor mode.

"The ringed city actually has an underground part. Although it is not deep and the area is not as large as the urban ruins on the surface, it is very dangerous. A very powerful lone hunter I once knew died there." Ke Lan said .

"What's under the ground?" Thirty-three's curiosity was suddenly aroused.